Farmers have accused the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government of turning a blind eye on the 2020 killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis.
Four years after the gruesome assassination of the veteran land rights advocate, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the Marcos Jr. government is complicit in Echanis’ murder.
“Four years have passed since the gruesome killing of Ka Randy but to this day, those behind his death are still not held to account. With each passing day that justice is not served for him and for the thousands killed under the former Duterte administration, impunity only festers — especially as the current Marcos Jr. administration continues to turn a blind eye to our calls for justice and accountability,” KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said.
Echanis was found dead, stabbed multiple times, in his rented Quezon City apartment in August 10, 2020. He was 71.
He was killed along with his neighbor Louie Tagapia.
Autopsy reports indicated that Echanis was “tortured and made to suffer” before he was stabbed to death.
READ: NDFP peace consultant Randall Echanis murdered
“We will always demand justice and accountability for the gruesome killing of Ka Randy. For his family and colleagues, his case remains unresolved,” Ramos said.
Echanis’ assassination came right after the Philippine government rolled out the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 and two years after former president Rodrigo Duterte vowed to kill top NDFP personalities involved in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
As a long-time peace consultant of the NDFP and a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms, Echanis participated in the 2017-2018 GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, playing an important role in clinching an agreement on the principle of free land distribution to poor farmers.
The free land distribution accord was included in the Interim Peace Agreement package initialled by NDFP and GRP negotiators in mid-2017 before Duterte unilaterally terminated formal talks.
His government subsequently designated the NDFP, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations and launched an all-out war against the revolutionary groups.
The KMP said Echanis was one of the many NDFP consultants killed under the shoot-to-kill and take-no-prisoner policy of the former Duterte government.
“It is only just that Duterte be made accountable not only for the drug war killings but also for the political killings and violations of international humanitarian laws under his administration,” Ramos said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
